Throughout October members of Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary Club are handing out colorful keepsake dictionaries to 2,500 third graders in the Poudre School District, including students in public, charter, private, mountain and home schools. Each year the Rotary Club selects a celebration school for the dictionary giveaway. This year’s celebration school is Bennett Elementary where PSD Superintendent Dr. Sandra Smyser will help distribute dictionaries at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27th.

On June 18, The Rotary Club of Fort Collins Breakfast hosted the 2nd annual Greens Fore Giving charity golf scramble at Collindale Golf Course. Financials have been posted and we are pleased to announce that more than $18,000 will benefit the following charities: Foundation Music School, Spirit Crossing, Book Trust, Centennial High School, Habitat for Humanity and Breakfast Rotary Foundation. The day concluded with a patio happy hour, golf ball drop and silent auction that raised $2,000. Our event wouldn’t have been made possible without the support of our title event sponsors: Charles Schwab, Warren Federal Credit Union, Commerce Mortgage, Domino’s Pizza, Northern Colorado Real Estate Brokers, ERA Herman Group, Ed Carroll Motor Company, Mathnasium, Waddell & Reed, Old Town Media, Home State Bank and Klick & Associates. Thank you to the 106 golfers who played and our wonderful team of volunteers.

HOSTING OPPORTUNITY FOR BRAZILLIAN ROTARIANS SEPTEMBER 22 THROUGH 24, 2015.

District 5440 is hosting a Rotary Friendship Exchange team from September 9, 2015 through September 24, 2015. The team starts in Billings MT and will wander through Wyoming to Scottsbluff Neb by September 20, 2015. There are 3 married couples and 4 singles--a very professional group--Health Educator, Hotel Manager, Lawyer, Primary School Teacher, Travel Agent, and active in their respective Clubs.

We need 3 volunteer families from our Club. If you can help out, cooperative arrangements among hosts will be made to meet the team half-way between Scottsbluff and Fort Collins on the 22nd. That evening, you and your guest are expected to attend an event sponsored by the After Work Club. Wednesday, the 23rd, is an open day, yet to be planned out. Wednesday evening would be best spent one-on-one with your guest to capstone the experience.

Hopefully, we can get all to attend our Club's Thursday morning meeting. Cooperative arrangements will again be worked out to get the team to Denver for departure that day.

The Breakfast Club on Thursday provided the recipients proceeds from the 2013 Chipping for Charities Golf Event. A total of $30,900 was generated on September 9 at the Fort Collins Country Club. The four organizations receiving funds were:

At our regular Thursday meeting, the club viewed the recent polio video that was produced in our own District, 5440. This video shows the effects that show up many, many years after a person has contracted the polio virus. Known as post polio syndrome, it can have debilitating effects on people as they age. It is extremely important that we never let our guard down in the effort to eradicate polio, especially knowing that many people in our country are no longer vaccinating their children leaving them susceptible to this virus.

Emmy award-winning actor Archie Panjabi, one of Rotary’s ambassadors for polio eradication, will join a panel of experts on World Polio Day, 24 October, at a special Livestream presentation by Rotary and the Northwestern University Center for Global Health on the progress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The 90-minute event, World Polio Day: Making History, will be held before a live audience at 17:30 Chicago time (UTC-5) at the John Hughes Auditorium on Northwestern’s Chicago campus.

The event will bring together experts including Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general for Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration at the World Health Organization; Dennis Ogbe, polio survivor, Paralympian, and ambassador for the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign to promote child immunization; and Dr. Robert Murphy, professor of medicine-infectious diseases at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The program will be archived for later viewing.

The following is the new brand from Rotary International. While many people recognize the wheel as the Rotary symbol, for many it was difficult to see the word Rotary on the wheel. All future publications will now be using this new brand

Everywhere you looked, there they were, on the signs at the entrance, flapping in the breeze on large flags, large banners, and on thousands and thousands of cards. On August 24th, the four Fort Collins Rotary Clubs put on the third annual Fort Collins Peach Festival and a major emphasis this year was the promotion of Rotary. It was truly very difficult to miss our beloved Rotary symbol.

With phenomenal growth through the first two years, the four clubs, Fort Collins, Foothills, Breakfast, and After Work, came together to expand Rotary's presence at the festival this year. In addition to raising money for Rotary, Partners Mentoring Youth, and Project Self Sufficiency, a subcommittee was formed, headed by Fort Collins Rotary Club president, Lee Jeffrey, with the goal of showcasing Rotary.

Upon arrival at the Festival, attendees walked through a large, 12 foot high Rotary wheel (thanks Wilton Lyles). Once through, they were met by exuberant Rotarians handing out specially designed cards to be used when visiting the Rotary displays. By visiting all 3 Rotary booths, visitors were entered into hourly drawing for prizes donated by local businesses.

The three Rotary booths were dedicated to Polio Plus, Rotary youth programs, and local Rotary community service projects. Manned throughout the day, many visitors took the opportunity to learn about Rotary and many expressed interest in either attending a local Rotary meeting or learning more about what Rotary does in our community and throughout the world. Each visitor to a booth was presented with a card that provided a web link so they could get further information on the clubs and Rotary in general (http://www.fcpeachfestival.com/).

The booths were more than just “see what we are doing.” They were interactive. The Rotary Youth booth, used several RYLA and YRYLA activities, and, this in turn, brought in a lot of interest for Interact, youth exchange, and RYLA. A large crowd of young people and adults was at that booth all day long. In walking around the venue, many attendees were showing off their “purple pinkie” and expressed thanks to the volunteers who provided them with information that polio is still a feared disease, something that they were not aware of. Many also had their picture taken using the “we are this close” campaign.

The Fort Collins Peach Festival, in its third year, has its roots from the Breakfast Club’s annual peach sale for dictionaries. With the broad exposure for literacy in the community through the peach sale, the four clubs embarked on an opportunity to enhance the connection of peaches and Fort Collins Rotary. The festival starts with a 5K race with the winners in several categories receiving peach pies. A peach pancake breakfast then follows which has proved to be a big hit with many people in the community. Peach pies, peaches from Pallisade, peach jam and jellies, several peach flavored beers from 6 of the local microbrew companies, and other peach related items are available throughout the day. There is also lots of music, displays from local companies [pic of beetle] and sponsors, plenty of food, and many activities for families and children. A special thanks goes to Tanis Roeder, our event planner and member of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins!

Due to the peach crop failure of our vendor, the Breakfast Club is not selling peaches for dictionaries this year. Please see the information below on donating $10 to buy a dictionary to help our program or click on this link - Dictionary Donation.

The Fort Collins Peach Festival will have peaches for sale on August 24. To learn more, please click on this link - Fort Collins Peach Festival.

2013-2014 Breakfast Club President Lee Varra-Nelson kick off her year this morning at the Midtown Arts Center. She introduced her Board of Directors and thanked those who have fulfilled their term on the board. The International Service Committee reported on 2 Global Grants that are in the works to provide eye care and education in India, along with several District Grants that they are pursuing. President Lee also laid out several of her goals for the upcoming year including increased member involvement and more opportunities for volunteering within the community.

For three years, 100 districts have been testing Future Vision, a pilot of The Rotary Foundation’s new grant system, which was designed to increase Rotary’s effectiveness during the next century of service.

As the new Rotary year dawns, the future has begun. All districts begin using the simplified grant structure 1 July. Districts have already been completing the qualification process and qualifying their clubs. A number of clubs and districts have begun preparing and submitting grant applications.

There will be three types of grants: global, district, and packaged. You can learn about all three types, and get more details about the application process, on Rotary’s grant microsite .

Also on 1 July, new leaders will take office at the club, district, and international levels.

Ron D. Burton, of the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, USA, will become Rotary’s 103rd president and will encourage Rotarians to Engage Rotary, Change Lives . Read a profile of Burton from The Rotarian and download his convention speech.

Anne L. Matthews, a member of the Rotary Club of Columbia East, South Carolina, USA, will become the first woman to serve as vice president. Matthews, a former director of South Carolina’s Department of Education, is president of Matthews and Associates, an educational consulting firm.

The Breakfast Club gave out 2 more grants today to the following organizations:

The Homeless Prevention Initiative was given $900 to assist some of their clients to be able to pay their rent checks in order to avoid eviction. Sue Beckferkiss received the check. Additional information can be found at their web site: http://www.homelessnessprevention.net/

The Education and Life Training Center, received $2000 for their Circles program, which is a campaign to end poverty. Tracy Mead accepted the check on behalf of ELTC. More information may be found at: http://eltcenter.org/

Today at Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary we had presentations by three local entrepreneurs.

Mike Lindsey, from ThermaStrike, presented their active bed bug proof luggage. Using infrared heat technology, the luggage will kill bed bugs before you can bring them home, For more information, visit their web site at http://www.thermastrike.com.

Coleman Hogan, from Logimesh Technologies, displayed their intelligent wireless sensor system for use in the energy sector. The device monitors the status of engines and compressors, alerting the companies to malfunction issues prior to them becoming major breakdowns. More information can be found at: http://www.logimesh.com

Scott Deeter, from Ventria Bioscience, presented information of the company's effort to develop life saving medicines through cost-effective technologies that allow for more accessibility to people around the globe. More information can be found at: http://www.ventria.com

The Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary Charitable Foundation donated $500 to the Front Range Exceptional Equestrians (FREE) at there regular Thursday morning meeting. FREE is an organization that provides equine-assisted activities for people with special needs. The funds provided went to purchase additional helmets for FREE's clientele. To learn more about FREE go to there web site: http://www.ridewithfree.org/

The following Breakfast Rotarians were honored Thursday morning for their outstanding work on the 2012 Peach Sale. They are: Lee Varra-Nelson and Patrick Bols for their work on entering all the orders and preparing the reports for a successful delivery day; Jeff Haiston for his tireless efforts in making the delivery successful by bringing all the necessary equipment to off-load the peaches and to move them around the pick-up location, Jeff and the Green Light Cafe were also major sponsors of the event; and Bob Williams who promoted the peach sale through innovated thinking with bumper stickers and placards at the club meeting. Thanks to these dedicate folks, the Breakfast Club sold enough peaches to buy every third grader in the Poudre School District boundary, including private and home schooled children, a brand new hard bound dictionary.

In 2011-12, the Foundation's unaudited and interim figures show that US$110.6 million was raised for the Annual Fund, the second-highest amount in the Foundation’s history. Annual Fund total giving saw a 3.72 percent increase from the previous year, as Rotarians continued their generous support of the Foundation.

Part of our success is owed to the 5,633 Rotary Direct participants who make recurring gifts to The Rotary Foundation on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

THe Breakfast Club donated $1000 to the Book Trust to purchase books for delivery in Fort Collins. The Book Trust teams with Scholastic Book Clubs to provide children in grades K-6, who are living in poverty or low income households, the opportunity to choose and own books. To learn more about the Book Trust, visit their web site at http://booktrust.org

Nancy Tippin spoke to us about the Stop Kenya 37 which is part of STOP (Stop Transmission Of Polio) the global effort to eradicate Polio which is the larger worldwide health imitative. Polio usually strikes children under the age of 5. Significant strides have been made in the imitative, currently there are only four countries in the world reporting Polio cases, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. It’s been just over a year since India has reported a new case.

Dave Dietrich presented a $5600 check to Vicki Lutz, executive director of Crossroads Safe House, as part of our ongoing support of Crossroads and their In-house library. If you are interested in volunteering with Crossroads contact Joe Valente.

District Governor Mary McCambridge and past District Governor Diane Knight spoke to our club members during the November 17th meeting about supporting the Rotary Foundation. They shared their experiences of participating in International service projects in Asia and South America. They also shared their passion to continue supporting International projects because the need for well equipped hospitals, clean water and staffed schools and many other basic life sustaining needs continues grow. We are all encouraged during the holiday season and throughout the year to find ways to donate to the Rotary Foundation and engage in International Rotary projects.

With $1000 from the Breakfast Club and help from other organizations, $350,000 worth of supplies made it to the hospital in Nigeria. The following is a message from past Breakfast Rotarian Father Frncis:

The container arrived this morning from Port Harcourt. There was absoluteiy no problem.

Some members of my Rotary club came over and helped in outsuffing it.We are so proud of it and very very excited about everything.Larry, Bravo! George, thanks so much!The tile work is not yet completed but we are very confident we will complete it in time , then we will pack our stuf inGod bless

Rotarian Marc Teets has issued a challenge to all Breakfast Rotarians to participate in donating their hair to Locks of Love.

The mission of Locks of Love is to:

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need.

Tyann Kuehnast from Fossil Ridge high School was honored as the February Teacher of the Month. Tyann is currently the Co-Director Coach for Forensics at Fossil Ridge. She has many years of experience as a Speech Therapist and in the Language Arts. She also has been very involved in developing and implementing cultural exchange trips for the students at Fossil Ridge. She has a long term involvement with Rotary through her use of the 4-Way Test in her speech classes.

Brian Brandley, Chief Scientific Officer for Bionimbus, is also a bonsai specialist in his spare time. He has been involved in the art of bonsai for many years and is always looking for new plant material. Rotarian Charlie Peterson opened up his property to Brian for collection of material and Brian agreed to turn over the profit from the bonsai material to the Breakfast Rotary Club Foundation. Thursday, January 27, Brian gave a check for $900 to the Club.

The funds will be utilized for flood relief in Australia through Rotary District 9630. We also invite others to donate to help the efforts to rebuild after the devastating floods.

Roy Sheldrick and other members of the Rotary Club of Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, have spent 15 years helping to provide clean drinking water for 300,000 people in the Artibonite Valley of Haiti. A year after a massive earthquake crippled the country, followed by a deadly cholera outbreak, their work in the region is more important than ever.

Sheldrick and his wife, Norma, founded Water for Life after taking part in a service trip to Haiti with their church in 1996. The nonprofit organization, supported by the Ancaster club and District 7090 (parts of Canada and New York, USA), drills wells to provide clean and accessible water in Haiti. To date, the project has raised more than US$1.5 million for 219 wells. It has also helped construct more than 350 latrines.

Since 1998, the Ancaster club and its Haitian partners have been awarded Rotary Foundation humanitarian grants totaling $672,093 for well and latrine projects. The grants have helped the program become more sustainable.

"With the leveraged contributions from the Foundation, Water for Life has expanded to do more work for the communities, including teaching Haitians how to maintain the wells," says Sheldrick. "We trained plumbers and created all kinds of jobs. Water takes them out of poverty."

Water for Life provides clean drinking water for Haiti - A Foundation supported project

RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee will introduce a new recognition, the Changemaker Award, to accompany the Presidential Citation during the 2011-12 Rotary year.

Banerjee, who said he will encourage Rotarians to focus on change, explained that the Changemaker Award will recognize Rotary clubs that make an extraordinary impact through their work in the 5 Avenues of Service.

Banerjee unveiled the RI theme during the opening plenary session of the 2011 International Assembly, a training event for incoming district governors.He urged participants to harness their inner resolve and strength to achieve success in Rotary."In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he can draw on. And the only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves," Banerjee said.

Our Club had an opportunity to honor our departed friend and fellow Rotarian, Bob McNeil on Sunday January 16. Bob was only with our Club for a short perieod of time but we all knew Bob was going to be a wonderful Rotarian. Unfortuately, Bob's life here was cut short but as we heard yesterday, he possessed all those qualities that we as Rotarians hold dear to our hearts.

The Breakfast Club donated $8000 to help fund the Children's Backpack food program through the Food Bank for Larimer County. Since the Club's charter in 1989, children at risk has been an extremely high priority for members. Helping to support and expand the Backpack Program was a natural project for the Club.

The Backpack Program provides nutritious food for children in need to help then through the weekend when their are no other means of getting good, healthy food.

The $8000 grant was a combination of $4000 from the Breakfast Club and a $4000 Governor's Grant from Rotary District 5440. Club members Dave Dietrich and Wilton Lyles were instrumental in getting the District Grant approved.

The Breakfast Club presented a check for $1000 to the Faith Family Hospitality (FFH) organization on May 9 to help them purchase a trailer. The trailer will be used to move to transport beds and other furnishings among various churches in the Fort Collins community to shelter homeless families. For more information on FFH go to: http://www.faithfamilyhospitality.org/2013/02/ffh-trailer/

The club will not be holding its regular meeting on Thursday March 28 at 7am. Instead, the club will be having an evening dinner meeting starting at 6 pm at the Midtown Arts Center. Several of the organizations who have been recipients of Breakfast Rotary Community Grants will be in attendance to talk with members on how they have utilized the funds in their organizations. In addition, the Community Service Committee, will be presenting an opportunity that will help increase the club's volunteer base.

Rotary International will celebrate its 108th birthday, Saturday February 23. From its humble beginnings in Chicago, 1905, Rotary has grown to organization spanning the globe with over 34,000 clubs. Rotarians around the world come together daily, to promote peach through service along with a never ending quest to eradicate polio.

A $1000 check was given to The Book Trust on Thursday January 31, 2013. The Book Trustprovides books for kids from low-income families—books that they choose themselves and that become their very own. The Breakfast Club supports the Book Trust not only through cash contributions but also by joining with the students once per month and reading with the children.

Another $1000 donation was made to the STEM program at Poudre School District. The Breakfast Club has joined with the Rotary Club of Fort Collins to help support this program. STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education is a nationwide program to support students and teachers in bringing quality educational opportunities to schools. This donation will go to supporting this program in 3 local junior high schools in Fort Collins.

Rotary club members worldwide are cautiously celebrating a
major milestone in the global effort to eradicate polio. India, until recently
an epicenter of the wild poliovirus, has gone one year without recording a new
case of the crippling, sometimes fatal, disease.

Rotarians and state government leaders in Jaipur, Rajasthan,
India, vaccinate children against polio during a National Immunization Day in
2011. Photo courtesy of the India PolioPlus Committee

India’s last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West
Bengal State on 13 January 2011. The country recorded 42 cases in 2010, and 741
in 2009.

A chief factor in India’s success has been the widespread
use of the bivalent oral polio vaccine, which is effective against both
remaining types of the poliovirus. Another has been rigorous monitoring, which
has helped reduce the number of children missed by health workers during
National Immunization Days to less than 1 percent, according to the World
Health Organization (WHO).

Rotary has been a spearheading partner in the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative since 1988, along with WHO, UNICEF, and the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation is also a key supporter of the initiative.

For the seventh year, Breakfast Club members are helping the Food Bank collect non-perishable food for the Annual Coloradoa Food Drive. Members spent 4 hours in 2 shifts at the King Soopers store on South College Avenue collecting hundreds of pounds of food.

Curt Palin, Breakfast Club liason for the Food Bak, organized theevent. Members will be back at the store on December 11.

On July 8, Craig Campbell was awarded the Dr. Ed Gillette Vocational Service Award. Craig has been a long time leader in the insurance field and represents his industry with high ethical standards and a caring attitude towards customers and employees.